Policing software to debut in Gujarat

System creates biometric database of convicts and 'criminals' rollout in 3-6 months

Gujarat is set to become the first state in the country to have a complete integrated police ERP (enterprise resource planning, a software integrating all aspects of an operation) system.

The project, known as Home Department Intelligent Information System (HDIITS), will be rolled out across all police stations, jails and special police branches in the next three to six months.

As a part of the project, the state home department has created a complete biometric database of convicts, jail inmates and suspects using biometric, iris and face recognition technologies. The database, stored at the central server of the police system, would be made available to police stations across the state.

The state is also rolling out a complete case management system, to do away with the earlier practice of writing First Information Reports and cases manually. The system will ensure cases are documented and templated speedily, and also be monitored by higher authorities at the headquarters, in real-time.

“It is going to be the first state in India to have this integrated police system, which will automate all the police stations, courts and jails. It is going to completely transform the capability of the police to have objective information to effect real-time decision making in their day-to-day activities,” said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, vice-president & head of the government industry solutions unit at Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s largest information technology services company.

TCS is technology partner for the Gujarat government on this project. Consulting firm McKinsey is taking care of the project management.

The hardware integration is being done by Gujarat Informatics.

Gujarat started working on this about two years earlier; it was piloted in four police stations, at Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. After approval from the Centre, the government is now rolling it across the state.

The state government is understood to have spent about Rs 150 crore on this project.

According to S K Nanda, principal secretary, home, government of Gujarat, all the 1,200 police stations, important jails and branches of the criminal investigation department and Intelligence Bureau are to be covered.

HDIITS will also take feeds from closed-circuit TV cameras and police control rooms.

In 2009, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at the Centre had gave approval for the creation of a Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and System (CCTNS). The project was aimed at integrating the police system of individual states with a core application software at the central level. This project has not seen much headway.

However, some states are going ahead with the plan to implement their own CCTNS. “Though, the government of India initiated the CCTNS, it was limited only to criminals. In Gujarat, we are implementing in a holistic manner, integrating it with facilities such as CCTV feedbacks, police control room and internal e-governance system of the police,” said Nanda.

TCS is implementing the CCTNS project in three other states — Kerala, Andhra and Punjab — and in Lakshadweep.